The Great Coaches: Kath Tetley

Kath Tetley: Let People Into Your Mess

Our Great Coach in this week’s episode is netball coach Kath Tetley.

Kath’s career began as the first paid employee of Netball New South Wales in 1998, when the Commonwealth Bank Trophy began. From there, she progressed through a number of roles working for Australian Netball while coaching at the state level.

She then went on to coaching roles with the newly-formed GWS Fury and NSW state teams, working in parallel as the General Manager of the Sydney Swifts.

As of 2024, Kath has been the Head Coach of the Scotland national team, the Thistles, and is helping them to prepare for the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2027 World Cup.

As a coach and leader, Kath focuses a lot on personality, connection, and people. During our interview, you’ll hear her speak on a number of fantastic points, including:

• The way that Great Coaches recognise their own gaps and fill them by adding smart, skilled people to their teams.

• How she uses empathy and honesty to approach difficult conversations which she personally finds emotionally challenging.

• Kath’s use of personality tools to better understand her players and to improve communication under pressure.

• Her emotional journey as a coach, shifting from self-doubt and imposter syndrome towards openness, connection, and trust in others.

• The tougher, more professional netball culture that she plans to build in Scotland and the lasting legacy she hopes to leave for future female athletes.

This was a fantastic interview, and I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

• How does Kath Tetley’s willingness to acknowledge her own gaps challenge traditional ideas of what strong leadership looks like?

• What does Tetley’s approach to difficult conversations reveal about the role of empathy in high-performance coaching?

• How does Tetley’s emotional journey — from doubt and retreat to connection and trust — show the importance of vulnerability in leadership?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Building Mental Skills

In this section of our newsletter, we like to bring attention to the topics and areas of leadership and coaching that can pose the biggest challenges and problems, and to share a small lesson or interview clip that can help you to assess your own approach to them.

This week we’re looking at mental skills, with this video from Great Coaches host Paul Barnett. Dwelling on over 200 interviews with elite-level coaches, Paul explores how sports psychology and performance psychology can be leveraged to improve performance, cultivate mental toughness, and foster winning mindsets.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

The Great Coaches Book Club

Our latest meeting of the Great Coaches Book Club is now available for you to hear on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts.

This time we met to discuss 'Sum It Up’ by the late Pat Summitt, and it was an absolutely brilliant session that we’re excited to share with you all.

If you’d like to be involved in the future, watch this space — more details to come.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

This newsletter is brought to you by Macquarie University Business School’s MBA program. Designed to empower, challenge and transform, the Macquarie MBA gives you the business skills and knowledge you need to succeed in an evolving global economy.

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

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Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au 

Our team of executive coaches — including The Great Coaches host, Paul Barnett — bring a wealth of experience as international CEOs who have faced the challenge of stepping forward in uncertain moments.